AFP issue warning to parents ahead of the return to school

A child’s first day of school is a big moment in any family’s life, so it’s understandable parents want to share the occasion online.

Sweet snaps of kindergarteners in brand new uniforms or Year Seven kids looking very grown up make for precious memories. 

But while it may be a way to keep friends and distant family in the loop, the Australian Federal Police have warned you can never be sure who will get access to that image once it’s on social media. Nor their intentions.

That school uniform? An easy way for offenders to find where the child goes to school, likewise with any geo-tagging. If you include their name in the post, there’s even more of a risk for offenders to build a profile and groom children, the AFP warns. 

Issuing a statement ahead of the start of the 2021 school year, AFP Commander of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation and Child Protection Operations Hilda Sirec said police regularly seized images of children held by online child sex offenders. 

And urged parents to review their privacy settings to ensure they were the set to the highest possible privacy functions.

“There’s no reason why parents and carers cannot continue to take those wonderful happy snaps and post them online,” Commander Sirec said.  

“However, we are urging parents and carers who are sharing those images to make sure they’re using secure privacy settings and only sharing images with people they know and trust.”

Commander Sirec also warned offenders use the information included in posts to start grooming kids. 

“It is more important than ever to ensure parents, carers and our young people are educated about online safety. The increase of children being online during the pandemic year has also meant offenders have more opportunities to target potential victims,” Commander Sirec said.

Child Protection Advocate Karen Flanagan from Save the Children said sex offenders worked for a ‘long, long time’ to befriend a child. 

She said not including any identifying information – such as school or sporting logos was one layer or protection, but that parents should also be educating kids about staying safe online.

Kids need to be taught to trust their instincts that if something ‘doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t’, she said, and parents should reiterate that nothing was so bad they couldn’t tell an adult. 

As well as to focus on preventative measures.

Saying Australia and the AFP were world leaders in terms of online child protection, she cautioned even sophisticated cyber safety programs could only do so much, given kids often had more online skills than their parents.

“(Preventative measures) is a life skill for children in terms of communication, if you communicate to kids from an early age about any potential safety issues or abuse or exploitation, they’re more likely to speak up or not be targeted,” she said.

“Because they have the skills and emotional intelligence to say ‘that’s not ok’ and they know when to speak up – or not speak up and speak up later when it’s safe to do so. It’s knowing what to do if they’re in that situation.”

Another tool, she said, was to make sure kids had a network of adults they felt safe to speak with – including outside the home.

Safety tips from the AFP include:

• Keep your child’s personal information including full name and age private
• Ensure the background of photos or videos doesn’t give away your address or location, (and don’t post your location or ‘check in’)
• Avoid posting photos in school uniform
• Only share images of your children with people you know and trust
• For community accounts, consider having a closed group with approved members and ensure you have strong privacy settings in place.

Reporting online child abuse:

• Call Triple Zero (000) if you believe a child is in imminent danger, or visit a local police station
• If you believe your child is experiencing issues online collect evidence such as screenshots or photos of content, block the user and report the issue to the app/platform/website